Wheaton storms back for victory

For a while in the first half of Wednesday’s CCIW game, the Wheaton College men’s basketball players seemed to forget just how good they can be.

“This team, because we’ve lost so many great players the last two years, this team has sort of been told that maybe we’re not as good,” Thunder coach Mike Schauer said. “This is a pretty good team. It’s a hard team to guard. When they sort of relax and just play and not try to think too much, we’ve got a chance to be pretty good.”

After being reminded to relax and stop thinking at halftime, the Thunder rebounded from a terrible first half to defeat visiting Carthage 62-55.

A long first-half Wheaton drought allowed Carthage (7-5, 0-1) to jump out to a 14-point lead before the Thunder (10-2, 1-0) regained its footing a little, trailing 29-18 at halftime. The Thunder shot just 30 percent from the field in the half.

“The first half was about as bad as we’ve played,” Schauer said.

Wheaton relaxed in the second half, going on a 10-0 run to tie the game at 33 on Jeremy Pflederer’s 3-pointer with 14:03 to play. The teams went back and forth until the Thunder took the lead for good at the 6:42 mark on Tim McCrary’s three-point play.

“I thought the second half we relaxed a little bit,” Schauer said. “I really expected us to get back in the game. I don’t know that I expected us to win, but I thought we’d get back and make it competitive.”

McCrary led all scorers with 26 points, 18 in the second half, to go with 8 rebounds. Andrew Jahns (Wheaton North) scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half, and Tyler Peters added 11 points.

Steve Djurickovic led Carthage with 19 points.

In the women’s game, the Thunder (8-3, 1-0) defeated No. 16-ranked Carthage 66-62. Laura Karsten scored 15 points, Lindsey Brenneman 14 and Kelly Brooks had 10.